Shouzou Kaga developing indie game with SRPG Studio

Shouzou Kaga, the creator of Fire Emblem, has been rather quiet since making his last game, Berwick Saga, 10 years ago. Although things could be changing very soon.

SRPG Studio (copyright SapphireSoft)

On his purported blog, Kaga is recruiting volunteers to assist with an indie game to be developed with SRPG Studio, a recently-released Japanese game-making tool published by SapphireSoft that allows creation of strategy RPGs like Fire Emblem..

Unsurprisingly, Kaga’s blog is entirely in Japanese, but fortunately a traveling elder has deigned to translate the relevant post here. You can also find discussions on our forums. Special thanks to Arch for keeping me posted with Kaga’s movements.

Update: Kaga mentions that he has found enough helpers and is no longer seeking assistance. He thanks everyone for co-operating and warns that he will remove his recruitment post soon.

The rest of this article summarises Kaga’s post and provides some background information.

Vestaria Chronicle 687-693 (copyright S. Kaga)

This isn’t the first time Kaga has dabbled with indie games; earlier in the year, he posted about an unreleased (and presumably incomplete) indie game he made back in 2010, called Vestaria Chronicle 687-693.

Although Kaga doesn’t explicitly mention it, there’s a chance he’s attempting to resurrect that game; that or he’s making something entirely new. In any case, his new game seems to be inspired by his previous games, as he mentions wanting Dragon Knights and colours akin to Berwick Saga.

Rather surprisingly, it appears Kaga has been planning things for a while. Already, he has a staff of around 10 people, including professionals and is currently negotiating with a character designer–potentially an “amazing artist”. Music-wise, he already has somebody in mind (and even tells readers to hazard a guess).

To resolve this, Kaga is requesting users to donate assets to his project, so long as they fit certain criteria. More specifically, the assets…

May be modified by Kaga to fit his game’s world view.

Will belong to SapphireSoft by right; everything else still belongs to the author.

Conform with SapphireSoft’s terms and conditions.

Be allowed for use in the production of sequels.

Absolutely must not infringe somebody else’s copyrights (eg. taken from another game).

If all of the above terms have been properly acknowledged, users may e-mail their contribution in a zip file, along with any usage conditions.

Vestaria Chronicle 687-693 (copyright S. Kaga)

Should the assets be accepted, Kaga will reply back and anybody who successfully contributes will receive special thanks in the finished game’s credits roll.

Kaga stresses that he and his staff have limited time to work on the game, so he can’t provide an estimated release date. But if everything goes smoothly, he will post about it on his blog.

In some corners of the internet, there were whispers that Kaga had a hand in SRPG Studio, but this appears to be untrue. Kaga confesses that he has exchanged messages with the author of SRPG Studio, but clarifies that he has no connections to SapphireSoft and cheekily apologises for any “stealth marketing”.

His final comment: “This is basically a project with friends and acquaintances, but we’d welcome a sprite artist. It’s our biggest weak point, so we’d warmly welcome you if you’re enthusiastic.”

Thanks, but I think the man wants to avoid spam, so I’ve edited your message a bit.

Dynel

I sent an email asking for an English release. They replied by saying, “I plan to publish the English version someday.
However, I think that the very time-consuming.” So let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Pablo Martinez

You should have asked him if he needs help with the translation, I’m sure some of the FE community would help with that for a faster release to the west.

Dynel

The Japanese language isn’t among my skillsets. And I couldn’t speak on the behalf of people whom I don’t know.